Anti-Family Values

Among the many disturbing cuts being proposed by the Bush administration for the next budget, I was aghast at their most recent social security cut. They plan on cutting some survivor benefits for surviving partners, widows and widowers, and surviving children of social security beneficiaries. My grandmother's sole income after my grandfather passed was her survivor benefits from his social security, which was abysmally small to begin with.

What surprises me even more, as much as Bush and the Republicans like to count the family values religious right on their side, I think maybe they forgot to consult them on this one. Think about it, this is a group that encourages women to stay at home and raise the children, if they can. This means that the women who are stay-at-home moms, or domestic engineers, earn no income and do not pay into social security and have none to withdrawal. When their spouses die - and a woman's lifespan in on average 5 years longer than a man's- they will get less under Bush's plan. And if we've learned anything from Bush's years in office, they love to cut funding for programs until they no longer work and then use the fact that they no longer work to justify cutting their very existence. Of course this doesn't really affect the upper-class, it will adversely affect the poor who largely depend on social security for survival in retirement.

Also interesting, the stop in payments to surviving children would be linked to school attendance. I wonder, how many 16 and 17 year olds who find themselves without a guardian stay in school and how many get a job and later a GED?

On another note, it's hard to imagine a more fitting example of "say one thing, do another" politics than Bush's recent announcement of a competitiveness initiative. After announcing in his State of the Union address that he would fund education and train our youth so we can be more competitive in the world, his budget proposal calls for cutting student loans.

And to keep America competitive, one commitment is necessary above all: We must continue to lead the world in human talent and creativity. Our greatest advantage in the world has always been our educated, hardworking, ambitious people -- and we're going to keep that edge.

I suppose he plans on better educating the richest portion of Americans who can afford to pay the skyrocketing costs of a college education and leave the rest of the country to serve him and his buddies freedom fries. After all, the service industry will be one of their few alternatives, since he even plans on cutting vo-tech education budgets as well. Oh so competitive.

posted by Sarai @ 10:47 PM